Nvidia announced today that Jensen Huang has resigned as president, CEO, and member of the board, effective immediately. The decision followed a late-night board meeting on Wednesday, and the company has appointed current CFO Colette Kress as interim CEO while it searches for a permanent successor, considering both internal and external candidates.
New interim Nvidia CEO Colette Kress
The resignation comes after a week of reports about two extramarital affairs. The New York Times reported that Huang had a relationship with Alice Huang (no relation), an executive at Singapore-based cloud provider Megaspeed, a major Nvidia customer, and that US intelligence officials believe she was recruited by China's Ministry of State Security to gather information on advanced AI chips. In a weekend memo to employees, Huang admitted he had been "unfaithful" to his wife. Then on Wednesday, the Times, citing people who worked at Nvidia, reported a second relationship with Kimberly Powell, the company's VP of healthcare, who reported directly to him.
Jensen Huang
Earlier this week, Nvidia's board said it had opened an independent investigation into the intelligence reports, adding that it had no reason to believe national security or company secrets had been compromised, and that it still had confidence in Huang.
Today's statement doesn't mention the affairs. It thanks Huang for his "immeasurable contributions" after 33 years at the company he co-founded. Nvidia has appointed Harvey C. Jones, a former Synopsys CEO and executive chairman, as its first-ever chair of the board. Jones said the board has full confidence in Kress and the leadership team, and that it expects the company's operations, customer commitments, and product roadmap to continue without interruption.
Nvidia's stock was down about 10% in premarket trading on Thursday. The company is still scheduled to report its latest quarterly earnings on Tuesday.
